SaltBabies
Active Member
Keep it up. You can do it.
Diamond Watchman Gobies - A Breeding Adventure
- Thread starter TerraMagnus
- Start date
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Mini Pearl
Community Member
We just had our pair of gobies lay egg mass and have been trying to find any information on keeping some of those babies alive. Sadly there is very little information available. One article I did find stated that phytoplankton was only food newborn gobies needed. That being said, I hope you have success and can be the first with info on how to raise them successfully. Thank you for all the info you have already provided
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TerraMagnus
Community Member
We've tried several different types of phytoplankton. These fry are completely disinterested in phyto of any kind that I can provide (and we've got quite a few we're culturing). It's to the point where the phyto started taking over because there was nothing there to eat it.
We've had some success with sieved copepods getting them out to 9-10 days but then the fry would crash. So hopefully going back through this thread will get you at least through the first week+. If you can improve on this, please share as we will continue to.
The last couple of egg masses have not gone well at all. The male abandoned the nest far too early in both cases and there were no eggs to be found. We're kind of wondering if they are hitting the end of their reproductive viability, and if that's the case this may be the end of our chapter. At least for awhile.
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TerraMagnus
Community Member
Yeah 9 days they are still looking good. It's day 10 they start dropping off. What I've shared here should get everyone at least that far anyway.
Fish Think Pink
5000 Club Member
My clownfish stabilized egg laying after I began ensuring they have live blackworms in addition to wide variety of food. At first my diamond goby wasn't interested in the wiggly worms, but eventually he caught on they were food falling on his head and he eats them. I've also tucked algae in the sand near where he likes to dig to enhance whatever mine likes to eat. I think of how pregnant women have vitamins, because giving birth is so hard on their bodies and it must be similar for breeding fish, IMO.
You know more than me, but wanted to share so you knew how much your post has meant to me. I'll be here lurking and cheering when you return with more info (either way). Wishing you and your diamond gobies the best!!!
I’m afraid I can’t offer much advice in the way of getting the fish breeding successfully again - the only advice I have is make sure the water quality is good, the fish are receiving a nutritious diet, and that there’s nothing stressing them out. Beyond that, you could try and feed more and see if that helps, but personally I wouldn’t. I’d rather err on the side of caution and stick with what has clearly worked for you thus far. (The breeding could be dictated by a number of things, I’m not sure what determines if the fish will reproduce or not for this specific species.)
With regards to raising the fry, one problem that I have heard of for similar situations (where the fry are doing well, then just seems to stop eating and die) is the pod population becoming too dense in the tank they’re being cultured in, and when the population becomes too dense they stop breeding. The fish fry then starve because the adult pods are too big to eat and they need the baby pods. I don’t know if this is the problem here or not, but it’s something that might be worth looking into. (I forget what the exact recommended density is for pods to avoid this problem, but I know it’s out there somewhere.)
Also, while the fact that the fry have made it ten days leads me to believe that they probably are eating alright, I was reading up a few days ago on the breeding of a similar species, and if nothing else is obviously wrong, then you could try either switching to a different food (such as small-strain rotifers, which were the required food for the other species I read about recently) or try providing both the current pods and a different food and see if that helps.
That’s pretty much all I can think of right now. If I think of something else later, then I’ll probably add it. In any case, I hope your gobies start breeding successfully again, and I hope you figure this out. Keep us updated if you get another batch!
With regards to raising the fry, one problem that I have heard of for similar situations (where the fry are doing well, then just seems to stop eating and die) is the pod population becoming too dense in the tank they’re being cultured in, and when the population becomes too dense they stop breeding. The fish fry then starve because the adult pods are too big to eat and they need the baby pods. I don’t know if this is the problem here or not, but it’s something that might be worth looking into. (I forget what the exact recommended density is for pods to avoid this problem, but I know it’s out there somewhere.)
Also, while the fact that the fry have made it ten days leads me to believe that they probably are eating alright, I was reading up a few days ago on the breeding of a similar species, and if nothing else is obviously wrong, then you could try either switching to a different food (such as small-strain rotifers, which were the required food for the other species I read about recently) or try providing both the current pods and a different food and see if that helps.
That’s pretty much all I can think of right now. If I think of something else later, then I’ll probably add it. In any case, I hope your gobies start breeding successfully again, and I hope you figure this out. Keep us updated if you get another batch!
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TerraMagnus
Community Member
Sadly, this pair has aged out and is no longer producing viable spawns. Hopefully this thread will help the next person to get a little farther along. If you do, please share what you learn with others.
Just wanted to say well done on the try. Interesting read and maybe you will find another pair to try with. Thank you for sharing!
This is so unfortunate
How short is their window? I also picked up a pair from my LFS. No idea if they're male and female, but they sure stick together a lot and dig a big cave under a rock.
If anyone else has had success I think a lot of us are curious to watch this story progress lol!
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